First Solar War
By the 2150s, the UNCA had expanded its scope massively, becoming seen more as an independent, extraterrestrial nation-of-nations rather than as an agency subservient to the Earth-bound UN. This growing autonomy worried many Terran nations who saw the UNCA increasingly as a foreign power that was encroaching on their individual colonies. Casus Belli Tensions would explode in 2154, when a Russo-Ukrainian colony in the asteroid belt denied docking privileges to a UNCA cycler carrying three hundred prospective colonists. The colony cited the UNCA's insistence on rapid colonial growth as a "violation of national sovereignty", claiming that the rapid influx of new colonists would destabilize the social order of their habitat. On Earth, the Russian government backed the colony, threatening decisive action if the UNCA pressed them further on the matter. In defiance of the Russian ultimatum, the UNCA refused to divert the colonial cycler, instead sending forces from allied colonies to coerce the Russo-Ukranian colony into compliance. The UNCA had, in the eyes of national authorities, implicitly declared jurisdiction over all of mankind's space colonies. Nations across the Earth commanded their colonies to begin military operations against any and all UNCA ships- but, to their surprise, many of their colonies outright refused to comply. Indeed, many colonists had begun to regard themselves as independent from their countries of origin- as UNCA citizens rather than citizens of the Earth. In an ironic turn of events, the UNCA declared war on the very governments that had once encouraged its growth throughout the solar system. Terran Blockade Even though the Earth's population outnumbered those of the colonies tens-of-thousands to one, this situation left the Earth in a militarily precarious situation. Near-Earth colonies had already seized control of the tethers that linked Earth's orbital rings to the surface- and, though some Earth-loyalist colonies were a thorn in the side of the UNCA, the Terran nations had few options for breaking the blockade that the UNCA had now established. The extraterrestrial colonies' mastery of automation and artificial intelligence had proved decisive in the early stages of the war, allowing for a crushing initial offensive that took the Terran nations by surprise. Aided by the gravity well of Earth, UNCA forces could wreak devastation simply by dropping ordnance from orbit- a decisive advantage that would see many cities reduced to rubble by simple kinetic energy alone. Brasilia Offensive However, the war was not a sweeping UNCA victory. In 2155, Terran forces reclaimed the orbital rings in a counterattack known as the Brasilia Offensive. After infiltrating UNCA positions around the city of Brasilia, U.S. and Brazillian special forces boarded space elevators bound for the equatorial orbital ring. In a surprise attack, these forces secured the tether station. Within a month, millions of Terran soldiers had ascended to the ring, gradually shattering the blockade that the UNCA had built up for the past year. By the end of the year, UNCA positions had, for the most part, been surrounded and neutralized, allowing for a rapid Terran reclamation of many of the lunar stations and ports. Stalemate By 2156, the conflict had reached an impasse- small skirmishes still shifted spheres of control, but UNCA and Terran positions had reached an equilibrium. Anti-UNCA forces had gained control of much of Terran and lunar orbit, but they otherwise found UNCA positions difficult to overrun. Both sides had massive supply line problems, and, at the farther reaches of the solar system, many colonies, ostensibly enemies, had already enacted informal truces to end local bloodshed. War fatigue was rapidly setting in, and, aside from clashes between robotic divisions, little actual conflict was still occurring. Furthermore, few people on Earth cared deeply whether the extraterrestrial colonies were independent or subservient, and the war was seen increasingly as a senseless loss of life. As public sentiment in favor of the war slowly died out, it became politically advantageous to call for an end to the conflict. Resolution In 2159, the First Solar War would finally come to an end by means of the Treaty of Senlis, which declared that the UNCA would henceforth be allowed independent control of Venus, Saturn, and portions of the Kuiper Belt, as well as various orbital pathways between these. The rest of the solar system would be split amongst national governments. Ideally, non-UNCA space was supposed to be shared evenly- but the United States, India, Russia, and China laid de-facto claim to the lion's share of non-UNCA space. The Treaty of Senlis ended the war, but its terms were not truly to the satisfaction of UNCA leadership. The Martian and lunar colonies, by far the most advanced and important, were not in their grasp- and most of the worlds that UNCA had been promised were not extensively colonized yet. Additionally, the Treaty saw many of the UNCA's staunchest supporters reclaimed by their founder nations- a fact that would do nothing to quell resentment on both sides. Smaller Earth-bound nations were unhappy with the divvying-up of the solar system between the major superpowers, which they saw as imperialist aggression that excluded them from mankind's extraterrestrial expansion. On all sides, the Treaty of Senlis was a disappointment- and yet, for the time being, most were content to more-or-less accept the terms and end the war.